1. So now I have confessed that he is thine,
2. And I my self am mortgaged to thy will,
3. Myself I'll forfeit, so that other mine
4. Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still:
5. But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,
6. For thou art covetous, and he is kind;
7. He learned but surety-like to write for me,
8. Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.
9. The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
10. Thou usurer, that put'st forth all to use,
11. And sue a friend came debtor for my sake;
12. So him I lose through my unkind abuse.
13. Him have I lost; thou hast both him and me:
14. He pays the whole, and yet am I not free.

This sonnet
is a continuation of the previous
one, and reflects on the situation that the poet and his friend find
themselves
in due to the entanglement with the dark lover, who it appears has
infatuated
both of them. A noticeable feature of the sonnet is the plethora of
legal
and financial metaphors, which combine to suggest that love is a
mercenary
and sordid transaction which binds the participants into an inescapable
slavery. There is nothing in it which indicates that love can be at
times
an inspiring and magical experience, nothing of the devotion and
eternal
commitment which characterises so many of the earlier love sonnets to
the
youth. Instead one is given the impression of souls in torment,
thrashing
around in a sulphurous pit, and every hope that is raised is
immediately
dashed. He forfeits himself to free the youth, but she will not free
him.
The youth pays the whole debt to free the poet, yet he is still not
freed.
They are both trapped in the nasty murky world of the back street money
lender, forever locked in a sordid enmeshment of sexual and emotional
blackmail.

The imagery of money
lending does not entirely
hang together, in that it is almost impossible to be specific about the
meanings of mortgage, bond, surety, sue, debtor in the context of
loving
relationships. However it hardly matters, for the picture of
infatuation,
addiction, hope, frenzy and disappointment is clear enough and no
further
embellishment seems to be necessary. It would be pleasant to set this
down
as a love poem, but it is more the poem of a tortured soul, and it is
worth
noting how far Shakespeare has wrested the tradition of the love sonnet
from its sweet ideal of courtly and refined love to show how at times
the
actuality is rather more fleshly and distinctly of a darker and more
savage
colour.

THE 1609
QUARTO VERSION

134

S

O now I haue
confeſt that
he is thine,
And I my ſelfe am morgag'd to thy will,

My
ſelfe Ile forfeit,ſo
that other mine,
Thou wilt reſtore to be my comfort ſtill:
But thou wilt not,nor he will not be free,
For thou are couetous and he is kinde,
He learnd but ſuretie-like to write for me,
Vnder that bond that him as as faſt doth binde.
The ſtatute of thy beauty thou wilt take,
Thou vſurer that put'ſt forth all to vſe,
And ſue a friend,came debter for my ſake,
So him I looſe through my vnkinde abuſe.
Him haue I loſt,thou haſt both him and me,
He paies the whole,and yet I am not free.

1.
So now I have confessed that he is thine,

1.
So = since; well then; it is the case
that. I prefer the first meaning, which makes lines 3-4 contingent upon
lines 1-2. 'Since I have confessed etc., I will forfeit myself etc.'
Alternatively
one reads the line as 'Well then, I have made a clean breast of it, he
is
addicted to you (and so am I)'.

2. And I my self am mortgaged to thy will,

2. And
I myself am mortgaged = and, in
addition to him, whom you possess, I am myself bound to you according
to
the terms of a mortgage. It is difficult to know how Shakespeare
understood
the phrase mortgaged to thy will since he does not
use the word mortgage
elsewhere. Mortgaging a property involves handing over
ownership of
it to a person or organisation in return for a sum of money, which is
in
theory repayable. On full repayment the property is reclaimed. In
affairs
of love mortgaging oneself presumably means giving one's heart to the
beloved
in return for reciprocal love from her. The mortgage is then payed off
by
continual devotion. The use here of the word will,
which has a variety
of meanings, including whims, wishes, sexual desire, lust, vagina (see
the
next two sonnets), does probably imply that the poet is sexually
infatuated
and has given himself up entirely (mortgaged himself) to the enjoyment
of
sexual pleasure with her, or to the hope of it and infatuation with it.

3. Myself I'll forfeit, so that other mine

3. Myself
I'll forfeit - A piece of financial
terminology linked in with the idea of a mortgage. 'I will abandon the
principal,
or capital, which was used to set up the mortgage, i.e. myself '. that other mine = that other self, my friend,
who is my all the world.
With a hint also of a mine from which precious minerals are extracted.

4. Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still:

4. restore
= bring back to health; return
to me unharmed.
to be my comfort still = to be yet, or always, available to
comfort
me. But there is surely a biblical echo in this from the well known
Psalm
23:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear
no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine
enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. Ps.19.23.5-6
Possibly also from Psalm 71:
Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side. I will
also
praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will
I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel. Ps.71.21-2.
All this is an echo of his idolatrous/non-idolatrous attachment to the
youth
as described in 105. Perhaps a contrast is intended between the love
that
might have been, the ideal love, as in the psalms, and the actuality
which
has to be suffered in his current predicament.

Lines 1-4: It seems best to read this Quatrain as a unit, and not to
take
the first two lines as self-contained and independent. Thus : 'Since
now
that I have confessed that he is yours and I also am mortgaged to you,
I
will forfeit my right to the principal in the hope of securing his
release'.
If we do not do this the financial terminology on which the sonnet is
based
becomes fragmented and rather meaningless, and the separate lines all
fly
off tangentially having little connection with each other.

5. But thou wilt not, nor
he will not be free,

5. But
thou wilt not = but you will not
do it (restore him to me).
nor he will not be free = and neither will he try to, or be
desirous
of being free; and you will not free him either.

6. For thou art covetous, and he is kind;

6. covetous
= greedy for possession,
having an ardent desire for. The meaning could also be extended to
imply
'being sexually avaricious, lusting after' OED.3. The first meaning
links
in with the financial terminology and the usurer accusation of line 10;
the second with the tone of sexual vituperation which runs through the
sonnet.
kind = gentle, considerate; typical of his kind, i.e. a young
man and
therefore at the mercy of his sexual desires.

7. He learned but surety-like to write for me,

7. The
line is of uncertain meaning. It is intepreted
by many commentators as showing that the friend went to plead with the
lady
on behalf of the poet, and to advance his love affair, but instead fell
in love with her himself. Instead of signing up for the love contract
on
behalf of the poet, he signed up for himself. This may however be too
literal
an interpretation.
surety-like = as if he himself were the guarantor (surety) of
my love
for you.
to write for me = to write on my behalf, to support my plea,
to sign
for me, to use his pen (penis) instead of my having the opportunity to
use
mine, hence 'he usurped my place as a lover'.

8. Under that bond that him as fast doth bind.

8. Under
that bond = according to
the conditions of that bond (a written legal agreement). This probably
refers
back loosely to the mortgage of line 2. Under could
refer to a signature
at the bottom of a page, under the wording of the bond. The term bond
is much used in the Merchant of Venice. It is upon the conditions
written
in the bond that Shylock insists on his rights, and because of its
conditions
he ultimately finds it impossible to take his pound of flesh. In the
extract
below Portia uses the term this bond is forfeit,
meaning that the
payment stipulated in the bond was due and had to be forfeited. (See
line
3 above).

PORTIA Why, this bond is forfeit;
And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off
Nearest the merchant's heart. Be merciful:
Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond.
MV.IV.1. 225-9.

'Under
that bond' probably also has a bawdy
meaning similar to from below your duke to beneath your
constable.
AWW.II.2.
as fast does bind = that ties him, imprisons him as tightly
(as it does
me).

9. The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take,

9. The
statute of thy beauty = the (legal)
rights to which your beauty entitles you. It is noticeable that here
the
poet does not quibble on whether or not she is beautiful, as in 131,
132
and 137.
thou wilt take = you will take up and enforce. You will
insist upon
exacting the due penalties. take does not normally
have this meaning,
but the context enforces it here.

10. Thou usurer, that put'st forth all to use,

10. usurer
= moneylender. Usury was considered
an evil in Elizabethan England, and at times was legislated against.
Nevertheless
it was a necessary part of political and mercantile life, and had to be
tolerated, but with much disapprobation. Moneylenders, often part of
the
Jewish community, were actively disliked and often individuals were
persecuted.
The metaphor is therefore distinctly unflattering to the dark lady, and
more than undoes the work of the previous line, which at least suggests
that she is beautiful (if cruel), a suggestion which previous sonnets
had
attempted to deny. that put'st forth all to use = who uses all
her capital in loans
to earn more interest; who offers all her sexuality for use by those
who
are entrapped by her.

11. And sue a friend came debtor for my sake;

11. This
line continues from line 9. You will
enforce your beauty's rights and come down hard on my friend who only
became
indebted to you (hooked by you) in order to save me. came
probably
is equivalent to became, but it could also suggest
'came into your
company as one who was in debt to me, or willing to be indebted to you
(for
sexual pleasures?) on account of my infatuation with you, and hoping to
ease my burden'.
sue is a legal term meaning 'pursue through the courts', in
this case
for settlement of a debt. The problem with this whole string of legal
and
financial metaphors is that superficially they appear transparent and
straightforward,
but in attempting to transfer them to a loving situation, and, even
worse,
to one in which three lovers are involved, the obvious interpretations
often
seem to be inapposite. (See the introductory note).

12. So him I lose through my unkind abuse.

12. him
I lose = I am or will be bereft
of him, deprived of him; I set him free (loose or loosen).
So him I lose - this echoes in a contrary sense the opening
words, so
now I have, and contributes to the sense that one is
travelling in circles
and that there is no escape. This idea is then reinforced by the final
couplet
and its crushing conclusion. through = as a result of. my unkind abuse = your harsh treatment of me;
my harsh treatment
of you. unkind = unnatural, not according to one's
kind. abuse
can mean 'deception' so the line could mean 'Thus I lose him through my
cruel attempts to deceive you (and myself?), or through your deception
of
me'. unkind is used in Sonnet 120 That you were once unkind befriends me now, where it is descriptive of the youth's harsh treatment
of the poet in
that he takes over his lover, possibly the same situation that is
referred
to here.

13. Him have I lost; thou
hast both him and me:

13. Him
have I lost - almost a repetition
of so him I lose of the previous line, except that
it is in the past
tense now, as if here the feared event has become real and final.
thou hast both him and me = you possess us both, you have
intercourse
with us both. Compare the use of have in 129:
Had, having and in quest to have extreme.

14. He pays the whole, and
yet am I not free.

14. He
pays the whole = he settles the
entire debt, he pays off all the mortgage. No doubt with a pun on whole
/ hole implying 'he satisfies your sexual appetite'.
and yet am I not free - the poem ends on a note of despair.